Verdict in baby's death is reaffirmed

July 14, 2005|By Hal Dardick, Tribune staff reporter.

A Will County judge Wednesday affirmed an earlier ruling that a day-care worker caused the death of a Plainfield infant by violently shaking her.

Jennifer DelPrete, 34, formerly of Hickory Hills, will face up to 60 years in prison when she is sentenced in September. In addition to denying a motion to reconsider her guilty verdict, Judge Carla Alessio-Goode ruled against a motion seeking a new trial.

On March 4, Alessio-Goode found DelPrete guilty of first-degree murder in the November 2003 death of 14-month-old Isabella Zielinski. DelPrete was caring for Isabella and five other children in a home day-care center on Dec. 27, 2002 when she shook Isabella, causing the girl to become limp and unresponsive. Isabella was transferred to several hospitals and required extensive care until she died about 10 months later.

The rulings came at a hearing attended by members of each family, including Isabella's parents, who wore buttons with her photo, and DelPrete's daughter, 15, and son, 8. Her children wore T-shirts that declared her innocence and stated, "Please let her come home to her children."

"There are massive injuries to this child," Alessio-Goode said. "Her death is a direct result of the actions of Jennifer DelPrete."

A doctor who testified at trial for the prosecution said the injuries that led to Isabella's death were the direct and immediate result of being violently shaken, or shaken baby syndrome, a frequent diagnosis now being questioned by some medical experts.

The baby's injuries were a type that only occur "in severe shaken baby cases," Alessio-Goode said.

Defense attorney Chuck Bretz said the first doctor to treat Isabella after she became unresponsive concluded she had a head injury that could have been 7 to 10 days old, which would have meant it occurred before the baby was in DelPrete's care.

He argued that prosecutors failed to prove Isabella died from injuries inflicted by his client and, even if she did, a lesser verdict of involuntary manslaughter would be appropriate.